I read today that Snow White’s Scary Adventures at the Disney theme parks is being “reimagined” as Snow White’s Enchanted Wish and my blood is boiling. Here’s a quick look:
I think it’s important to trace the origin of the little dark rides in Fantasyland. When Disneyland and Disney World were opened, they used individual ride tickets. Each park pass included a limited number of tickets for rides that were each categorized as an A, B, or C ride, with C being the best and most popular. Later D and E tickets were added, with the E-ticket ride being the best of the best. This is where the “E-ticket” slang term for anything exceptional comes from. If you’d like to know more, there’s a great list of the attractions each class of ticket applied to HERE.
The class system for rides had to do as much with the cost of producing each attraction as it did the attraction’s popularity. With fewer E-tickets in each coupon book sold at the main gate, guests had to decide which prime attractions they most wanted to see. It was a system that limited demand for the best rides and promoted demand for the mediocre ones.
When I first visited Disney World during it's opening season, the five ticket system was well established and Snow White’s Adventures was a solid C-ticket ride. This means that the powers that be at Disney designed the ride as a relatively cheap, middle of the road attraction. Peter Pan’s Flight and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride were right next door and were similarly positioned. I remember thinking that Fantasyland had all the kiddie rides.
During the early 1980s, the attraction got a new coat of paint and a new name: Snow White’s Scary Adventures. I’m not sure what prompted the change, but I suspect it was the work of the same sort of forces at work today “reimagining” the ride yet again.
After Disney opted for the free-for-all “passport” version of ticketing, these little rides became more popular than ever. Without the ticketing class system imposed, most folks think all of the rides were created equal. That’s why the queues for Peter Pan and Snow White are comparable to the ones for Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion these days. Most guests see them as equals and this has created huge problems for the parks. Too many people are standing in long lines for mediocre rides, and the rides don’t live up to the wait.
As a fix, the parks have been ditching some rides and revamping others. What this usually means is adding new FX lighting and more movement to these simple dark rides. In the case of Snow White’s Scary Adventures, it also appears to mean removing the scares.
I got to do some work on the Snow White ride back when I was employed by a Hollywood lighting vendor who shall remain nameless. We revamped some of the FX lighting in the ride so I got to see first hand just how cheaply these rides were thrown together. In the old days, carnival dark rides consisted of multiple freight trailers tied together. Snow White’s Scary Adventures was cut from similar cloth, albeit it without the smell of Swisher Sweets mixed with weed.
While I have no problem with Disney upgrading these attractions, I do have an issue with their removal of anything that might be deemed remotely scary. There was a big fight over the general aesthetic of the Haunted Mansion after Walt’s death. Walt had always wanted it to be a haunted house, but after he was gone, two factions fought it out. One wanted scares and the other wanted laughs. The compromise between the two is a miracle of good fortune because it might have destroyed the ride altogether. As it stands now, there’s no clear story to the attraction, but it works because the Ghost Host provides the throughline in his narration of your tour of the house. You become the protagonist in your own tale.
Snow White’s Scary Adventures survived decades in the kiddie section of the park with the word “scary” emblazoned right on the front of the ride. So why change it now? I imagine it has something to do with modern helicopter parents who don’t want their child to ever have to be frightened. These are the same people who think Halloween is evil and who organize their church’s harvest festival. I wonder how many of them have actually read the stories in that Bible they tell their kids to read, but I digress.
My point is that many children enjoy frights within reason. Like trick or treating, controlled frights help us all to confront our fears and learn to live in a world that isn’t going to molly coddle us every day. On top of that, some of us truly love the strange and unusual because we, ourselves, are strange and unusual. I shudder to think that I might not have been allowed to enter the Haunted Mansion when I was a kid. That ride significantly added to the person I am today. Let’s not deprive our children of the experience of gentle fears in the name of making the world a perfect nest for them. After all, everyone eventually gets kicked out of the nest.